Bonnet won't open!! Help!!

[popegregory]

Happy Easter everyone

Mine's a series 1 Elise, this morning me and Dad pulled the bonnet off to tighten up the hinge at the front which had become loose. We screwed that back on and I pushed it shut by the windscreen, it now refuses to open. Pulling the cable does nothing, I'm stumped. It's open a little way so I don't know if a persuading device could be pushed in to release something there.

Nearest garage is Paul Matty and I really don't fancy going up to tell him I can't open the bonnet!! :-)

[LBird]

If you try a 'persuading device' be VERY careful not to lever it against the windscreen as it may break (the windscreen, not the bonnet) Personal experience unfortunately. Well, not actually me but a rather frustrated individual "helping" me to fix it....

Try grabbing the fibre glass piece of the bonnet between the two grills and waggle it from side to side whilst simultaneously pulling upwards, whilst someone else is pulling the bonnet pull.

HTH and good luck!

[Skaffen]

Another vote for the wiggling technique. If you shifted the alignment of pin+spring versus the hole that can happen so maybe you did that while sorting the hinge, On the boot/engine cover on my elise the screws holding the pin+spring bit came a little loose so I tightened them up not realising while doing that I'd shifted the thing out of position and lo and behold after shutting the boot I couldn't get it open again! Fortunately the boot cover hinges were a little loose so I used something to wedge the release pull open and then I could wiggle the boot cover enough to get the thing to pop back out again .

[junks]

If wiggling doesn't work you can pull back the RH wheel arch liner & with someone pulling on the handle push the pin out with a long screwdriver/pry bar etc. Make sure you adjust the pin so it lines up very well with the latch or the same thing will keep happening

[northwick]

When you say its opened a bit... can you see the screwheads for the plate that adjusts the catch? If you can get to those and unscrew them slightly and then pull the lever again and it should open.

[popegregory]

Bonnets open, cheers all! Turns out when it was screwed back together it was slightly out of line with the hole, I then slammed it down too quick, so that can be adjusted in the morning. We utilised all of the above, from screwdriver, to waggling, to (in the style of Blackadder), the use of phrases rhyming with "clucking bell"